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Just got back from an international conference in Quebec City. Over
the years, I've often raved about great food, so I'd be remiss if I
didn't say that I really missed the Quebec food the first day back.
There's something about the bread in the province of Quebec that just
can't be matched. The European attention to meal times is also
appreciated. Here in Ontario, it seems like food has to be served fast
and meals have to move quickly, while in Quebec I think pretty much
every one of my meals stretched out for a couple of hours. And in the
fine restaurants in Ontario, I don't find the same attention to
quality. Maybe it's just the variety of Quebec: besides the usual
steak, fish, poultry, and pasta, there are always some exotic choices
available, even at a buffet. From rabbit medallions to caribou steaks
to the most wonderful crepes, it is a wonderful place.
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When the World Wrestling Federation was forced by court ruling to
leave the WWF abbreviation to the World Wildlife Fund, Vince McMahon
and any other key decision makers in a sense missed the boat when it
came to renaming the mother promotion of the rebranded TV products to
World Wrestling Entertainment or WWE for short. Based on the booking
of TV the past couple of weeks, it sure seems like it would have been
far clearer to fans who wondered how the split-brand TV shows would be
booked to just revert to a mother promotion name of WCW. For a long
while now, the heirarchy of the WWF roster has been quite carefully
controlled by a few self-protecting and subversive wrestlers, and that
was before the master of this fine art, Hulk Hogan, arrived and worked
his magic as only he can. Okay, so the rare times that some young guy
had the chance to get over, like Chris Jericho, or seemed already to
be over with the fans, like Rob van Dam, things somehow came together
in a way to minimize or totally undermine the chances of success. In
Jericho's case, the WrestleMania storyline amazingly spent more time
putting over the Stephanie vs. HHH feud than the world champion, who
served as window dressing on TV leading up to the show. Some people
suggested that Jericho's booking leading up to Mania was a compliment
since he was quite clearly booked similarly to Ric Flair in the 1980s.
Flair stayed over as a star even as his promotion tanked because of
the very booking that the WWF emulated. The difference, of course, is
that Flair was already accepted as a great star, while Jericho didn't
have that same credibility. And with less television in the Flair era,
there was also less chance of overexposure. In van Dam's case, a lot
of attention was paid to how sloppy he can be, even though so many
other guys who have had far less going for them have been pushed
higher more quickly. But none of those other guys really had van Dam's
potential to supplant one of the top guys. And that was the WWF's
problem: there were only a few top spots, and the guys in those spots
didn't wnat to lose the money that those top spots can bring. So each
of those guys manufacture their own problem of self-preservation: one
wants an opponent with whom one can draw some good money to up the
bonuses, but one doesn't want an opponent who could come away from the
marriage elevated to the point that he could take one of the top
spots. And so, on occasion in the recent past, an intelligent viewer
could easily think "WCW" while watching some of the shenanigans
resulting from the above situation.
The rebranding was supposed to alleviate the problem. In essence, the
WWF would consist of two promotions and the PPVs would have dual main
and co-main events. The guys who were suffering from the strategic
booking manipulations of HHH, Steve Austin, and Undertaker, would
seemingly have a better chance at getting into the meaningful pushed
matches on PPV. Yeah, Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash were brought in, so
the measure of manipulation increased. Amazingly, with those five guys
each looking after his own interests, the younger better workers
actually thought they might get a meaningful push. Anybody who might
look at history and come to a contrary conclusion would be reminded
that Vince McMahon doesn't tolerate egos -- the difference between the
WWF and WCW is the management. That hardly explains the miscues with
Jericho and van Dam. And then we get to the booking of the past couple
of weeks.
Speaking for myself, what was once the occasional hint of
WCW-egos-crushing-the-great-workers was replaced by
this-shows-feels-like-Nitro-near-the-end. Consider these bits of
booking wisdom:
* Steve Austin is sent away by Ric Flair, who announces that Austin
won't be wrestling on the show. The commentators reinforce things
by telling us that Austin has indeed left the building. Ratings
plummet. In theory, it seemed like a fresh idea to set up an Eddie
Guerrero vs. Steve Austin program. Unfortunately, they first
ensured that they had the smallest audience possible to witness
the angle. Let's see, in the current landscape a new program
involving one of the egos gets one match to get over before being
abandoned. If the first attempt at getting it over falls flat, it
is pretty easy to blame on the lack of drawing power of the junior
member of the program. Sorry Eddie.
* On the same RAW, the Undertaker beat the crap out of van Dam, who
kept on fighting. This set up the title match where van Dam almost
beat Undertaker, but Flair screwed him with a restart. The
commentators and ring announcer went so far as to actually say
that van Dam won the title and then Undertaker won it back, even
though that was clearly not the intent of the booking storyline.
Okay, imagine for a second that HHH was booked in van Dam's spot
-- right, this result would talked about to no end by the
commentators, the wrestlers, and the whole thing would lead to a
PPV match. What happened here? Well, van Dam's near-win was so
important that it wasn't mentioned a week later by anybody who
matters, if at all. Instead, in the interim, they set up a HHH vs.
Undertaker PPV main event, as the egos continue to protect each
other. This kind of lack of follow-up totally undermined the good
workers in WCW: if the promotion doesn't care enough to hype last
week's near-win, why should the fans?
* On Smackdown, they announced that Hulk Hogan would retire at the
end of the show. This angle had also been heavily hyped on RAW.
Sure enough, Hogan came out and started down that road. He even
went sleazy by bringing his dad's death into the storyline. Of
course, Vince McMahon came out and announced that Hogan couldn't
retire because he had contractual obligations. Hogan then said he
didn't want to retire until he beat up Vince.
* On RAW, after the attack by Eddie Guerrero, it sure seemed like
Austin should be interested in getting at him. Heck, maybe they'd
even let Guerrero get some licks in and keep the whole thing
balanced to make it interesting. Hmmm, Chris Benoit showed up on
RAW, playing babyface and eventually sitting at ringside when Ric
Flair kicked him out. Lo and behold, in the main event, Austin
ended up attacking Eddie and Benoit ended up attacking Austin.
There might be merit to having Benoit as a heel, but they turned
him heel in front of his hometown fans, who didn't want the angle
and the way they did it made it sort of meaningless unless it
leads to a program with Austin with Austin putting Benoit over at
some point in the program.
* On RAW, with Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit in the ring, Austin
casually asks for a match with either of them but then zeroes in
on a match against Ric Flair. Good lord, they are treating Eddie
and Chris like they treated the nWo, when it comes to the Austin
program.
* Of course, the biggest event is that the booking team decided that
Austin should wrestle Brock Lesnar on TV and lose the match.
Austin thought that it was stupid to give that match away on TV at
this point, and it sure did seem to do nothing to build up his
already weak program with Eddie and Benoit. While we'll likely
never know all of the details, Austin presumably decided that he
was being undermined, so he just walked out on the promotion.
There is some speculation in the Observer that while negotiating
other booking possibilities, Austin was even wary of a Bret Hart
style screwjob. Well, Austin's well-known complaints about the
creative team are bang-on, of course, but one can question his
level of professionalism. Then again, one could say that Vince
established the level of professionalism in his organization when
he mistreated Bret Hart, so he shouldn't complain when he gets bit
in the ass. And the top guys have gotten away with manipulations
for a long time now. The loss of Austin is immense.
* On RAW, they killed the two owner story line by having Vince
McMahon beat Ric Flair in a horrible match. They discarded the Ric
Flair as servant story line because Austin walked out and
proceeded to build a match that should maybe have taken place a
year from now. Unbelievable.
* Lastly, word is that Vince McMahon has once again hired Vince
Russo to be a writer for the group. There is some question as to
the level of control Russo will have, but his presence alone
speaks to the limited consideration those in control, particularly
Vince McMahon, have given to the reasons for WCW's downfall.
WWE had King of the Ring this past Sunday, 06/23/2002. Of course, the
Austin mess leading up to the show dominated one's thoughts. The PPV
did seem to have a few good matches, and the requisite dogs. On
Velocity on the weekend, the actually ran canned promos for the key
matches, something they haven't done in a long time.
Here's the rundown:
* Rob van Dam beat Chris Jericho in a King of the Ring semi-final:
My cable cut out, so I missed the first couple of minutes. When it
came back, I think I could be forgiven for thinking that the match
was at the twenty minute mark. There wasn't anything all that
wrong with this match, but I had trouble getting into it. I think
that Jericho has lost some spark, and I think he's been severely
hurt by the "push" he's received this year. Actually, that's true
of both guys. Even if both of them were used correctly beginning
this day, it would take a few months to put the bloom back on
them. It built to a nice final few minutes, with some good
counters and near falls. Crowd chanted for RVD. Van Dam took a
released German suplex, crumpling up like he usually does and
giving Jericho a two count. Van Dam guillotined Jericho on the top
rope, hit the split-legged moonsault and scored a two. Jericho
tried for the Walls of Jericho, but van Dam rolled him up for a
two. Van Dam tried to sling shot Jericho into an exposed
turnbuckle, but Jericho dodged it. Van Dam took theturnbuckle
bump, but only gave up a two count, even with Jericho using the
ropes. RVD missed the frog splash, hit the lionsault, and got a
two. The crowd really wanted RVD to win, which of course means
that it is time for him to job for HHH or Undertaker on TV again
-- because it would help get him over, wink, wink. The climbed to
the top rope together. Van Dam sort of flubbed a kick, but Jericho
crotched himself anyhow. Frog splash for the win. Good match.
Jerry Lawler interviewed RVD afterwards, which could actually be a
good way to help a new guy get over. Jericho attacked RVD and put
him in the Walls of Jericho. Presumably, this gives RVD a reason
when he loses to Brock Lesnar and sets up a rematch between these
two at the next show.
* Brock Lesnar beat Test in a King of the Ring semi-final: The
absolutely stupid booking of Lesnar continues. In the first act of
this match, Test dominated Lesnar with power moves. How retarded
is that? Lesnar even gave up several two counts for Test's
trademarked power moves. Is Test so valuable that Lesnar can't
crush him? Apparently.
* Jamie Knoble beat the Hurricane to win the Cruiserweight Title:
They finally got a clue and used the Smackdown commentary team to
hype this match. I guess it is it too late to start treating the
two programs as separate entities, since they didn't bother to let
the different commentary teams call each brand's matches. As with
everything in the promotion, there's a lot of damage to undo.
Knoble and Nidia do a redneck trailer park trash gimmick. I really
like Knoble -- he reminds me a lot of Chris Benoit circa 1988 --
and during the prematch hype I hoped that they let him shine. Rey
Misterio Jr. is in now, so there is the change to build the
cruiserweight division into something if they take a bit of care.
They should do a Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid style series with
Knoble and Misterio, modernized only a bit, to establish the
division. Unfortunately, they worked a style not unlike the failed
Richard Morton lightheavyweight run years ago in WCW. The
cruiserweight division has no chance of getting over if it doesn't
offer something different. Isn't it amazing that the Kid vs. Mask
matches from 20+ years ago stand out as having a different and
advanced flavor compared to this match? Anyhow, it wasn't bad, it
just wasn't what it needed to be. As expected, Knoble went over to
win the title.
* Ric Flair beat Eddie Guerrero: They worked a long match, and Flair
is still a master of the game. Eddie spent some time working over
Flair's legs, but then reverted to chin locks and the like. The
commentators made Eddie seem like an idiot by saying that they
couldn't understand why he didn't go back to the leg. Late in the
match, they tried to do the two count spots that Flair & Steamboat
made famous and that Eddie & Dean Malenko modernized many years
laters, but something went wrong and they just moved on. Chris
Benoit came down to ringside and put the cross face on Flair on
the ground. These two young guys double teaming Flair isn't going
to get them over. Inexplicably, Buh Buh Dudley came into the ring
and laid out Guerrero. Flair crawled onto Eddie and got the pin as
Benoit was chasing Dudley away. Good way to start pushing Guerrero
and Benoit. Jerry Lawler called it an upset and said that Ric
Flair's run may have begun. I love Flair to death, but this just
isn't the right way to use him.
* Molly Holly beat Trish Stratus to win the Women's Title: The
storyline is that virgin Molly has a big ass. As Molly tried for
the Fujiwara armbar, the commentators wondered whether Molly has
ever wore a thong. That reminds me of the hilariously funny scene
in "Undercover Brother" where the funky lead character gets
whitified and listens to what he calls the Michael Bolton version
of Cisqo's "Thong Song." I don't know if the version I saw of the
movie was an internal screener, but that boom microphone drifted
into a lot of shots; I presume the scene I mentioned is still in
the theatrical version of the movie. Anyhow, the women tried to
work hard, including stiff chops, but the commentary didn't really
care about the athleticism. "Trish looks great in her purple ring
attire." "Trish looks great in anything." As the match started, I
was thinking that they might as well give Molly a "butt bomb"
finisher, and they did. The commentators came up with goofy names
for it. Molly ended up getting a screwy pin. The commentators were
excited that the women's champion is a virgin.
* Kurt Angle beat Hulk Hogan: In the pre-match hype package, they
made it clear that this match is just a prelude to the Hogan vs.
Vince McMahon match down the line. As a result, I figured that
Kurt had to be a stepping stone for Hogan. Hogan still comes out
to the nWo porn music. Jim Ross reminded us that Hogan's only
other King of the Ring appearance was in 1993 in a "match
surrounded in controversy" where Hogan lost to the WWF Title to
Yokozuna. I won't detail this match, but you know that Angle has
had four star and better matches on PPV every time out, including
matches against opponents like Kane, and this match was nowhere
near that good, which says all that needs to be said about Hogan.
At least the had the sense to have Hogan tap to the ankle lock.
Honestly, they need to use Undertaker and Kevin Nash the same way
they are using Hogan.
* Brock Lesnar beat Rob van Dam to win the King of the Ring: Van Dam
had control for a couple of minutes with a rapid flurry of moves
before Lesnar took over. Lesnar finally hurt himself by
shouldering the ring post. RVD finally knocked Lesnar off of his
feet. He even hit the five star splash, but Paul Heyman
guillotined him on the top rope. In a cool spot, RVD fell on top
of Lesnar and scored a two count. Lesnar rallied and scored the
pin shortly afterwards with the F-5. They took all that time to
come up with a name for his finisher, and that is it. Well, Lesnar
gets a title shot at SummerSlam.
* Undertaker beat HHH to retain the WWF Title: Before the match, HHH
bumped into Shawn Michaels and Kevin Nash. At first the nWo acted
menacing and then they all hugged. Nash said the nWo would be
there if HHH needed them later. Paul Heyman joined the commentary
team for this match to basically push the idea that Brock Lesnar
will beat the guy that wins this match. Once again, I found it
hard to get into this match. Yeah, both of these guys are past
their primes, but I don't think that is the entire reason. After
all, in All Japan, Mitsuhara Misawa & company faced Toshiaki
Kawada & company many times over the years where the roster
changed very little, yet somehow I was always excited to see those
guys square off yet again. In Undertaker's case, I just don't
enjoy watching him because he sucks, even when he is apparently
trying hard these days. In HHH's case, I've just never seen the
greatness that some others have. To me, HHH is decidedly mediocre
between the bells. So, this match featured a lot more selling by
Undertaker than usual. It still wasn't great. Paul Heyman
announced that Brock Lesnar laid out the Rock backstage after
winning the King of the Ring. "Do you think the Rock is any match
for Brock Lesnar?" I guess they are going to make the Rock the
July stepping stone for Lesnar. With twenty minutes left in air
time, they did a couple of two counts. HHH tried for a pedigree,
but UT catapulted him into the corner. Earl Hebner happened to be
in the corner, so he bumped like he was shot. Fortunately, the
music guy cued up Rock's music and the Rock came out to chase Paul
Heyman away and to talk to the commentary. The arena fans had no
idea why Rock was angry at Heyman. According to Rock, he shook
hands with Lesnar and that was that. The wrestlers got up again,
but the referee was still dead. Gee, could Rock be counting a
controversial pin? They brawled at ringside. "This is the epitome
of vigilanteism." Huh? Undertaker attacked the Rock for no reason.
As UT went for a chair shot, Rock attacked him. Rock went to chair
UT, but missed and hit HHH instead. UT laid out Rock with a post
shot. A bloody HHH was dumped back into the ring. UT hit the last
ride. Nick Patrick ran in and counted two. UT punched Patrick.
Rock came back in and laid out Undertaker with a Rock Bottom. As
Rock walked away, HHH draped himself across UT. Hebner did his
patented "crawl and count" routine, but UT lifted his arm at two.
Hebner started rolling around again. Pedigree, but everybody lies
down. HHH went over to get Hebner back to his feet. UT hit a low
blow. Schoolboy with tights for the three count. What a crummy
match. Two ref bumps, significant interference, and several
should-be-pins before a screwy win -- feels more and more like
WCW. Rock came back into the ring to beat up UT with the "People's
Hands," according to Jim Ross. Of course, HHH laid out Rock. And
UT laid out HHH with a choke slam. Hmmm, could there be a
three-way match for the title in July?
Overall, I don't really know how to rate the show. I liked that Hogan
submitted to Angle. It appears that this PPV may mark the end of a
cycle, since Austin is gone and HHH is out with an injury. There seems
to be momentum in the company for the idea of putting over the young
guys cleanly in a real attempt to create new stars. Isn't it sad that
they pissed away two invasions and the promotional split without
elevating a single person? And now most of the young guys have been
marginalized by a long period of misuse. Still, if Hogan, Nash, and
Undertaker are used the right way, some guys -- most notably Angle and
Benoit -- should still manage to become draws. If the intention to
switch the guard is honest, one thing is for sure: I wouldn't want to
be Kane, nearly ready to return from injury.
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